Rating A-
If you were to have spontaneously asked that attractive man/woman you saw in your day-to-day life to spend the day with you, it could’ve ended in a similar way to Before Sunriseexcept it never would.
Celine (Julie Delphy) and Jesse (Ethan Hawke) find themselves on the same train yet ultimately with vastly different plans once they arrive; Jesse, having broken up with his girlfriend is jetting off back to the U.S. and Celine back to university in Paris. Their lives converge, however, as conversation begins to flow following a public argument from a German couple on the same carriage. Having left the train, Jesse jumps back on and asks whether Celine would like to spend the night together before his flight out of Vienna in the morning.
The two make their way through the city, encountering many different people from varying backgrounds, including a homeless man who writes a poem on the spot for spare change and two Austrian playwrights/actors with that night being their opening.
An insightful glimpse into the often insipid take on relationships, love, and life, Before Sunrise does it spectacularly well, also providing that absolutely perfect measure of the ‘first date’ awkwardness that the film’s director, Richard Linklater, should, and has been credited with since the film was released in 1995. These appearances seem to juxtapose the relationship, which develops and grows, culminating in the twist at the end the film.
For all the men out there, put down that masculine facade you spend your life preserving for just 101 minutes, and sit back and be wowed. If romance films aren’t your thing, yet you find yourself backed into a corner (or snowed into a flat) on these bitter Dunedin nights, and are forced into watching a romance with your ‘significant other’, then insist on this over The Notebook for god’s sake…you could do much worse than Before Sunrise. If you like it, there are two sequels to follow.